


Mutiny

by jenni3penny



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 07:52:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4471268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenni3penny/pseuds/jenni3penny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The combination of Kate and Abby smiling in one particular direction, in that particular (knowing and smug and amused) fashion was akin to some sort of raid on the senses. Complete invasion. Annihilation of all." Kibbs. Without much plot. Two chapters total.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

She had a rather annoying(ly delicious) habit of lookin' damn fine most any day of the week anyhow. The extra effort had been completely unnecessary. The makeup? Not necessary. Sure, she always wore a little – but this level of hazy smokiness around her eyes? She didn't need it. Though, he'd (silently) admit that it bounced the jangled colors of her eyes up toward stratospheric levels of _oh-holy-fuck_.

But, in general, she just didn't need it.

Those eyes killed him dead most any time, made up or not.

Kate seemed undeniably nervous and her hands brushing against her stomach made him swallow as she looked down the front of her herself. “Think this is okay?”

“Okay?” Abby couldn't seem to keep her grin to herself, the natural prettiness of it accentuated by the deep color of her lipstick as she flicked a look between him and Kate. “You're smokin' hot, Kate.”

Abby looked at him again, her eyes somehow implying that he should either confirm or deny (considering he was the only one with a penis in the room) – but they also said he'd damn well better be confirming right quick or he'd pay for it later.

Aforementioned penis had alerted him that she was, indeed, 'smokin' hot' before vocal confirmation was required.

_Mutinous little bastard, I'm trying to work here..._

_Well... not 'little'... but -_

“Gibbs?” Abby was not helping the situation. And she damn well knew it too. “Tell her.”

 _Right, about that... um,_ “Y'look fine.”

_I will neither confirm nor deny that you look... delightfully fuckable._

“Fine?” The scientist who was idly fiddling with the strap of the other woman's dress seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself, enjoying the fact that she had undoubtedly seen him stop dead just inside the doors of Forensics and stare at his subordinate's hips. “She's gorgeous.”

“Abby, stop it.” _Aaaand she's blushing._

_Sweet Christ, why does the woman have to blush so much?_

_It's adorable. Jethro Gibbs doesn't do adorable._

He'd love to _do_ her in that dress, though. If she asked. Wouldn't even have to ask nicely.

_Stop. Looking. At. The. Dress._

“How long before you're ready?” Stop looking at the fact that the length of it was perfect for her height and that the slit that almost teased an expanse of her thigh reminded him that, more than likely, she'd be concealing weaponry somewhere in there too. As to where, he hadn't a goddamn clue.

Her head sharply nodded, just before she adorably chewed on her bottom lip and turned a wide pair of eyes on him that forced his shoulders to tighten as he forcefully turned his glance away from her. “Abby's got me wired and ready to go.”

_Wired too? Hell, in that dress, where?_

“Waiting on you, actually.” Abby grinned at him, seeming far too aware that she was witnessing the closest thing to embarrassment he'd actually allow. “Earpiece?”

Yeah... there'd been an actual reason for entering the room. Unfortunately, he'd lost track of it about the moment he'd really allowed himself to take in how smoothly and silkily that particular shade of red wrapped her hips and waist and curved on her breasts like it had been sewn in around her. Subtly sexual, still classy enough to make him swallow half his tongue.

“DiNozzo's got 'em at the meet.” He dropped his tone of voice, let it sway quiet because he knew they all paid more attention when he hushed his tone. “All we need is you.”

“I feel... a little... this is a bit much. Right? I mean - ”

“You look fine.” _You look... inevitably gorgeous._ “Kate, you look nice.”

“Yeah?”

Gibbs finally let a grin grace over his lips, nodding humor into how nervously and warily she was watching his reaction. “Yeah.”

“Not too... over the top?” She asked quietly as she focused on him, as though she didn't even realize she was fidgeting her fingers against the flat of her stomach and unconsciously doing her very best to kill him where he stood.

She was asking, in her own Caitlin way, if she looked... slutty.

He had the idea that very little in the world could make her look near as trashy as she feared she might.

“Not at all.” _You could be wearing a garbage bag and duct tape and I'd still think_ “You look good.”

“'Good' in Gibbs Speak equals 'pretty'.” Abby's interruption lifted his shoulders higher again, a minute shake to his head as she drew up some sort of... makeup weaponry in the other woman's direction. “C'mere, though.”

“Don't add, Abs.” His argument went quick but quiet and loosened off his lips before he could trap it back and swallow it down. “She's... this is perfect.”

“Okay.”

He shook his head into her smiling, “It's perfect.”

It only took him half a breath to realize they were both smirking at him.

The combination of Kate and Abby smiling in one particular direction, in that particular (knowing and smug and amused) fashion was akin to some sort of raid on the senses. Complete invasion. Annihilation of all.

_That was, officially, a prime example of 'you've said too much'. Now get the hell out._

“You riding with me or McGee?”

“You.” Her smiled faltered a little as she searched around her, snatching up the clutch that had been laying lonely beside Sciuto's keyboard. “I'm coming.”

“Be patient, Gibbs.” Abby's voice tracked after them both, still a taunt of exactly how humorous she found his predicament, despite the fact Kate was acting as though she was mostly oblivious to it. “This is a science, ya know?”

A science? Witchery, actually.

Some sort of trickery that was too far effective on human males.

Or... maybe this particular reaction was limited to him.

 

* * *

 

 

Nope.

It wasn't just him.

Because McGee couldn't seem to stop staring at her ass, even when it was just on camera.

“McGee.” He repeated the younger man's name with a drop in patience and a rise in annoyance, banking his shoulder hard into the open door of the van. “Let's take in the view _above_ the horizon line, shall we?”

_Not that I can entirely blame you but, hell, find another ass to drool over._

“Sorry.” At least the younger man still had enough sense in his head to blush as he stuttered, shaking his glance away as he settled his fingers outstretched against the keyboard he was cramped around. “I'm sorry.”

“He can't help it, Boss.” DiNozzo was lounging his way across the rest of the space in the cramped van, his legs looking longer just by the way he'd stretched out behind the other man's seat. “He's never seen Kate without her 'smug' on.”

Gibbs slanted his glance slowly in the other man's direction, noting how deftly DiNozzo dropped the grin he was wearing and flattened his feet to the floor. “And what particular outcropping were you enjoying the view of, DiNozzo?”

“Right,” Tony nodded and waved a hand toward the surveillance set up, dipping his head toward it as his voice went tacit, “so the mic's coming in fine.”

“You can talk to her if you want, we've tested everything. She's live.”

“She's listening to the entire conversation, boys.” Kate's voice echoed droll into the van, fenced right between partly annoyed and irrepressibly amused.

“Hey, Katie-cat.” Tony's upper body lifted forward from his chair, leaning toward the electronics as he smirked. “I'd just like to point out that it was McGee gettin' busted for - ”

“Sit-rep, Kate.”

“He's here.” She answered into his order easily, unconsciously reminding him that when it was important, he trusted her to be more than proficient. “He's got a fan club hanging off him, though. I can't get close.”

“Sure you can.” Gibbs shrugged looser into the opening framing of the doorway, feeling a smirk twitch at his lips and doing his best to keep it from finding a home. “Find a way.”

She made a snorting noise, one that generally scraped on him because it was sort of cute but at the same time it meant she was about to do whatever she damn well pleased anyhow, regardless of what he was telling her. “I'm just supposed to wedge myself up his - ”

“Exactly.” Gibbs tossed back, letting his glance rise over the changed angle of the cameras, studying her angled lean into a table, guarding the fact that she'd seem as though she were a loon for talking to herself if anyone caught on. “Start wedging.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“Should be for you.” He gave her a half laughing sound in return, jaw jerking toward the screen regardless of the fact she couldn't see the movement. “I'm watching six men stare at you right now. And six wives are planning your murder.”

A groaning breathed off her quietly and echoed into the small space. “Why'd I agree to this?”

“Because you can't seem to tell Gibbs 'no'.”

_Shut up, DiNozzo._

“Shut up, DiNozzo.”

“Both of you shut it.” The words weren't as impatiently cut as they could have been, a sigh shuddering off his lungs as he blinked his eyes shut. “Kate, get this done.”

“You're not being helpful, Gibbs.” Her response was tinny over the microphone but he heard enough concern in the words that he cast a glance toward the camera feed, watching her as her jaw lifted her glance out toward the crowd.

She was still sweetly nervous, a hand still fidgeting against a bit of fabric just below her breasts.

“You need to want it.” Gibbs let his voice cull gentler than it had been, ignoring the silence of the other agents watching him speak. “You want the win - but you need to want the attention too.”

 

* * *

 

 

_I do. Just not his._

_Yours would be nice once in a great goddamn while._

_What are you, a fucking eunuch?_

“Got it.” She shot it back quickly, turning to set her still mostly full glass to one of the small tables that had been littered throughout the banquet room, wiping her fingers off it slowly.

_“Y'look fine.”_

Fine.

Sure, because that's what every girl wanted to hear when she was cinched into something nearly unbearably tight along the ribs and felt like she was about to swallow her own breasts if she tried to look at her matching shoes.

Son of a bitch.

Fine.

_Fine?!_

“Show you 'fine', you arrogant son of a - ”

“What?”

“Nothing.” she hissed at the innocent echo of McGee's voice in her ear, squinting as she pressed her lips together and searched out her target.

Of all things, of all the word choices in the entire English language... he'd settled on 'fine'?

However...

God... there'd also been 'perfect'.

_“She's... this is perfect.”_

How exactly had he gone from 'fine' to 'perfect' in that short amount of time?

She couldn't help but forgive him a little, fingers unconsciously twisting against the hem that edged along her left breast. Her hand turned along the wave of her hair, twisting into it so that she could brush it back off her shoulder and glance back toward her target.

_“It's perfect.”_

“Gibbs?” She wasn't sure why she she'd even asked for him, wasn't sure she really wanted to know if he was watching. Except, for some reason, she needed to know he was there. And for a brief moment she'd dropped the guise of pride long enough to just reach for that assurance.

“I gotcha, Kate. I'm right here.” At least the warmth in his voice didn't sound mocking. In fact, it sounded more like heat than just warmth. “Get it done so we can go home.”

So _we_ can go home?

_I'm ready now. I'm not doing anything..._

“Okay.” She murmured it with barely a movement to her lips. “I don't...”

“No single heterosexual male is gonna turn you away lookin' like that, Kate.” Then he'd gone teasing, all Gibbs and cheeky charm. And she felt her spine loosen relaxed. “Trust me.”


	2. Chapter Two

“Clear out.” He was getting impatient with the both of them, ushering them out of the vehicle with jerked movements and his hands waving after them. “Both of you on that floor, understood?”

Tony was idly (and unnecessarily) fixing the lay of an extraordinarily well cut suit against his chest as he nodded, stepping slowly a couple feet from the van. “Sure, Boss.”

And McGee was still clinging along the open doors, as though he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to actually do his job. “If you need to change camera angles - ”

“He's got it McRepeat. He's not deaf _yet_.” The senior agent thwacked his hand into the other man's elbow, nodding him away from the doors and watching as McGee finally made his way toward the building with a glaring. “She okay in there?”

Gibbs shrugged at the lowered concern in the younger man's voice, forcing his lungs to cycle through a full breath as he took up the seat McGee had been at. “Well, let's truss you up like a Chippendale and then throw you at a stranger who likes to videotape themselves murdering whoever they take home.”

DiNozzo made a play at supposedly considering it before shaking off a disgusted look. “Maybe next week, Boss.”

“Go.”

_I said 'go'. Why are you not going then?_

Because DiNozzo was just quietly grinning at him, goofy looking and as though he was waiting for something to happen. “You're not staying in here all that long, are you?”

“Not once she's close to him, no,” he grunted back defensively.

“You're not exactly dressed for the evening.”

“Don't worry about me.” Gibbs turned his attention toward the screen, purposefully ending what he could of the conversation by giving the other man his shoulder. “Keep her in your line of sight.”

“That I can do.”

_Yeah, I've seen evidence of that._

“DiNozzo.” He turned it along the other agent's back, letting his voice rumble an implicit threat of warning and order. “I mean it, no distractions.”

“I'm on her.”

_Rather you weren't, thanks._

 

* * *

 

 

“Agent Todd? You look lovely.”

_Agent?! Who in the hell??_

_Fuck. Triple fuck with handles._

He felt the growl vibrate off him, rasping up his already aching throat, “She just got made.”

“That's impossible.” Tony's voice was suddenly pitched higher than usual, the echo of it seeming near twanging through Gibbs' earpiece.

_Screw this. Shut it down._

She was close enough (he was close enough, rather). He'd handle it himself.

“I got it.” He murmured quietly, letting the words grit low as he passed through the crowd and directly toward her, banking off shoulders and arms and prying his way closer.

He pressed into the jammed straightness of her spine, curled up on the curve of her waist before she'd even necessarily had all that much time to process and respond to how screwed she suddenly was.

“Caitlin.” Both hands went flat along her stomach as he intentionally crowded the stronger safety of his shoulders around her, ignoring all evidence of surrounding humanity just so he could made a show of (and enjoy the hell out of) nuzzling along where she'd pinned dark hair up from her left ear. “I thought I'd lost you.”

_God, you smell good._

She'd only tightened up at his touch for a fraction of a hitched breath – and then she sank relaxed into his chest through a mildly moaning sound of pleasure, her voice shushing on a whisper, “Hi.”

He turned his head enough to catch the way she'd angled a sweetly warm look up at him, the caramel glinting in her eyes brimmed up with a combination of appreciation and something else he couldn't necessarily define. Something like relief but altogether too happily excited, especially when he allowed himself the guiltily made pleasure or letting his fingers go rubbing against her stomach.

He let the finest grin he could manage tread over his lips, watching the way it widened and brightened her eyes at once. “Hi.”

_What just happened?_

“Hi,” she distractedly repeated again with, possibly, the most shy smile she'd yet to turn on him.

_Because you're about to..._

_Oh, Christ. Yes, please._

He reflexively met the upturn of her lips toward his, letting his mouth brush along the way she'd raised a kiss in his direction. He realized that she'd just meant it as a play at greeting him. Something to deflect attention from the fact that her cover was scrapped. The fact she was so surely and intentionally curling his arms tighter against her torso with warm and welcoming hands made him momentarily not give a damn who was watching or why. So he nipped lightly along her bottom lip before she could pull her head back, tipping his mouth back over hers with a rub of his lips and a sound that met the breath she held.

_If that's just how you say 'Welcome Back'... I'm gonna need to taste 'Welcome Home' too... Also 'Good Morning' and 'Good Night'. And 'Oh, good God, do that again'._

She blinked once after he lifted a smile off her lips, his glance grazing over her face for any sign of emotion. Mostly she looked a little dazed, kissed by surprise and pleasure more than by him.

_And that wasn't even near my best work. That was just a sample._

It was pretty charming, actually. To see her pleasantly speechless.

_Hi there, Kate. Think I've finally found you._

“I've just been chatting with...” her voice was soft as her hand lifted off the back of his, fingers swinging between the other two men who were facing her, “sorry.”

“It's okay.” The younger one ( _murdering bastard_ ) grinned and he couldn't help but instinctively grip tighter along the middle of her, intentionally and possessively riding his jaw up the heat of her hair and the side of her head as he blinked back. “I'm not offended.”

_I'll offend you, ya sick son of a bitch. Just give me time._

“I got caught up by the bar.” He swallowed anything but affection from his voice and then flicked a smirk over her as her lips pursed up in what looked like possible embarrassment, a glint of a smile strafing over her lips as she rubbed at the lipstick that was obviously staining his skin. “It's packed over there. I gave up on getting us a drink, baby.”

_Baby? Where the fuck did that come from?_

The fact it made her sigh out a barely audible sound made up for the misstep.

“It's okay. We can go somewhere else.” She smiled at him like this was nothing and this was natural and this was... normal. He was silently considering how perfect normal could be when she waved her fingers toward the other man, the older one. “You remember Doctor Kingston?”

Gibbs clenched his fingers into the fabric of her dress and tugged her tightly back into his front before lifting his hand, head dipping in the other man's direction. “You're a friend of Mallard's, right?”

“Right, we met a few months ago.” The oddly overly genial (and, it seemed, slightly tipsy) doctor took his hand and shook it vigorously.

“Good to see you again.” He nodded the words between them quietly, letting another smile over his lips as she rubbed her head back into his shoulder and let her body relax so thoroughly that he was the sturdiest part of her.

_(Don't ever) Stop doing that._

Her fingernails were tracing the back of his hand. At least, until she aimed back toward their unknowing target. “And this is...”

“Aaron.”

_Bullshit._

“Nice to meet you.” He sloped both hands along her hips, dragging against silken red to avoid shaking the other man's hand. “Listen, if you wanna grab a drink and some food, we gotta go now. The sitter - ”

“Right,” she caught her fingers against his watch, dipping her glance down as she turned the face up toward her and slid her thumb back and forth against the inside of his wrist. “we told her eleven.”

 

* * *

 

 

“I'm sorry.” Kate mumbled into the way she turned tighter along his chest, her head shaking back and forth as she hedged the side of her hand back into his suit jacket.

“Don't apologize.” Gibbs just kept their movement steady and calm, slowly propelling her at an angle across the room, keeping her pressed up a half step in front of him. “That was not your fault.”

“We vetted the list, Boss. I have no idea what he's doing here.” Tony's voice came up softly in both their ears, his tone apologetic and nearing what almost sounded like concern. Still, the unrequested intrusion startled on her, skittered her skin a little colder.

_Oh, hell..._

_He heard all of that._

_He's never gonna let that die._

Tony had a point otherwise, though. They _had_ vetted the entire guest list. Hell, they'd manipulated half of it just to get her close enough to their suspect without rousing suspicion. What the hell was a retired medical examiner doing flirting around with women even less than half his age at a social event that was more on the side of wicked than wise?

“I don't care.” Gibbs grit off, all the frustration rasping off his throat even as his thumb kept a gently calming swipe going up and down along her spine. “Nearest exit?”

It was McGee's tone treading their hearing, his voice quiet and softly spoken.“Southeast.”

“That was close.” She blew out the breath she'd been holding along with the words.

“Don't worry.” And his mouth was so near her hair that she wasn't sure he hadn't intentionally leaned closer. “I've got ya.”

Who said she was worried?

Her glance turned back along the sharpness of his profile, eyes following the clenched tension in his jaw.

The hell with Tony hearing it. She was done caring.

_Because... God... you look good._

_I didn't think it possible you owned a three piece suit._

Kate reflexively lifted her hand as she let him entirely guide her steps, rubbing to ease the way he was biting down on his frustration with the pad of her thumb, letting her voice drop quieter. “Seems you do.”

The flinched look of barely guarded surprise he gave her merged rapidly with bemused confusion as he gracelessly shoved her through the kitchen doors and unapologetically watched the back half of her as she just kept walking.

 

* * *

 

 

“You okay?”

She simply smiled into how aggressively he tugged her up along the front of him, lifted her hands clear and watched quietly as he traced down the inner lining of the right strap of the dress. His eyes were pinched thin as he focused on whatever he was doing and she took the fractional moment to enjoy being close enough to see the little lines around his eyes as he made a noise in his throat, victory in the sound of it as he caught the line of the mic and snapped it unpinned from the inner seaming of the dress's neckline. She wasn't sure how he'd known where she was wired but she was pretty pleased that he'd managed to figure it out just upon some sort of... inspection.

“Nothing happened.” She murmured gently, finally dropping her glance to his hands as he used his long fingers to strip the line, stringing it unusable, cutting the sound of them from anyone else. “I'm fine.”

The parking garage he'd steered them into seemed to steal all sound but the rhythm of his breathing, a little more amped than usual. A little heavier. “I'm just... you're okay?”

_Jesus, you're... the sweetest asshole ever. You don't even realize where your hands are right now._

“I'm fine.” She smiled guilelessly into the fact he had her face palmed up and aimed toward his, both his hands sweat warm against her cheeks as he searched her eyes.

“Gibbs, are _you_ okay?” she asked quietly, head still stalled up in his touch.

He flinched after a moment, the note of surprised concern that she'd lifted into his touch making him blink realization of how close he'd gotten them. He swallowed hard as he nodded, but he didn't shift his hands as first. One stayed where it was while the other stroked slowly up against her right ear, teasing under her hair to carefully and reverently pry the earpiece from her before he finally removed himself from her personal space.

_Stop stepping back. You always take a step back._

“It's nothing. I hadn't actually gotten any information off him,” she sighed off, shrugging as she wrapped her arms against herself in the echoing and chilled parking garage. “He may be a little spooked but, it's fine. He has no idea who I am.”

His eyes thinned farther, fingers rolling the earpiece into his jacket pocket as he shook his head downward. “It's staying that way. You're not doing that again.”

_Sir, yes, sir. Somebody's feeling possessive tonight. Good._

“Well, no, not now,” Kate laughed it off sardonically. “Why the hell was he there?”

“Doesn't matter.” His response was bittered, sounded about just as acidic as the taste in her mouth had gone when Ducky's acquaintance had broadcasted exactly what she was throughout the room. “We've got nothing.”

Kate pulled a face and waved it off. “We don't have nothing. We tail him.”

“Yeah?” Gibbs looked at her like she was a bit on the crazy side for suggesting it, his hand lifting to wave a line up and down her. “You wanna pull an all-nighter in... that?”

_Oh, this little thing? Whatever do you mean??_

“Could be worse.” She shrugged into grinning up at him, jaw lifting up into the arched half glaring he was raking over her. “You could've let DiNozzo dress me.”

He was ridiculously terrible at pretending she wasn't actually funny.

Especially when he grinned into a breathy chuckle and looked away from her, like matching her smile would somehow entrap him. As though she could ever actually, legitimately trap the man.

He'd cut himself free with that knife he carried and his strict adherence to _ridiculous_ rules.

“So we tail him?” He turned it quietly back over her, taming his mouth.

“You and me.” And she liked how his jaw lifted into the vocal combination of their togetherness. “We hang back, keep it quiet.”

_That's it. Come a little closer._

“When'd you start thinking like an investigator, Agent Todd?” His voice went dirty and quiet.

Well, maybe she'd projected the dirty part onto it. _Guilty_.

However... she didn't doubt his voice was an excellent vehicle for dirty talking.

“Guess it's infectious.”

“You and me.” He tapped a fingertip against her wrist, seeming to mull it over before he grazed his glance back up toward her face. “We get this done tonight.”

_Which 'this'? The case or you and me and this dress that may have been completely intentional?_

Didn't matter to her, really. Either. Both. All of the above.

Staying up all night with him was... it didn't matter how.

She'd silently admit that it was more than okay, regardless of circumstances.

“Agreed.”

Especially if he stayed in that suit.

He was smiling completely suddenly, like it didn't matter that she saw how much pleasure was curving his lips. Maybe it didn't matter anymore. “Then we talk about this dress.”

_Screw the dress. Your tailor deserves a goddamn award for excellence._

_Is he gay? Honestly. A gay tailor would know to make your shoulders look that fucking edible._

“What about this dress?”

“It's perfect.” He was very clearly make the statement seem as though it wasn't all that important.

And she ignored that. Because his eyes said differently. “Just the dress?”

“Nope.”

_Oh, hell.... uhkay. You win. Because I have no idea how to respond to that._

“You look...” a guttered noise thrummed off her before she shrugged a half smile up at him, “fine.”

He chuckled suddenly, let it breathe toward a full laugh that he turned away from her. “Fine?”

_Yeah, fine. In that damn.... fine... way._

“Abby was right.” Her fingers reached against the bridging of the fabric on his vest, two of them digging under it to tug them a little closer as she confidently smiled. “About the dress.”

“How so?” He squinted sidelong at her, nearly glaring but no malice in it.

“She said it would undermine your authority.”

One brow went a little higher as his lips slacked. “In what?”

And she couldn't help but give him a smile as she let herself lean farther forward. “In everything.”

“Traitors.”

_But cute ones. Cute and smart. The kind you like._

“Guilty.” She murmured it quietly on a single nod, keeping her head lifted into the downward shifting of his.

She melted into the warm curling of his kiss, the way he cradled her hips tightly into his own before wrapping her up and arching her so entirely into the sturdy height of him that she had no actual control over the fact that, yeah, 'melted' was completely accurate.

Because he sent his slowly tongue stroking hers and she couldn't even keep coherent, let alone upright on her own.

_More. More of that. More of that and, hell, then more._

“Kate.” How could he sound authoritative and assholic and affectionate while nibbling along her throat? “Let's get this done so we can go home.”

She ribbed her thumb against his jaw, turning her head into the lift of his (unfair to the rest of man-kind) eyes. “No single heterosexual male is gonna turn me down looking like this?”

He just lifted his shoulders as though she wasn't forcing him to fess up to something. “Say what I mean, don't I?”

A laugh went through her that she couldn't trap back. “To a fault.”

“You like that.” It wasn't tailored to be a question, wasn't necessarily anything but a quiet observation as he blatantly let his eyes graze down the steep angling of the dress over her breasts. “I should fire your ass. And Abby's.”

“For what?” Maybe if she just kept whispering he'd just keep getting closer.

_Bingo. That worked._ “Mutiny.”

“Well, last time we played dress up I _was_ the Captain.” Soon as the rank was off her lips his eyes fueled brighter, lips twitching like they wanted to widen into a smile even as his jaw flexed tight.

She stilled into the slow movement of him, gulped a swallow that had him finally smirking as he angled his head toward her. There was legitimate humor in the color of his eyes, something sparking up brighter as he turned his mouth away from her leaning and instead dropped his jaw. His mouth found the nervously tight lift of her shoulder, a damp but warmly laid kiss rubbing her skin before he turned back toward her hair and drew in a breath.

“You get me this bastard and Kate, I swear,” he rubbed the words through her hair, “you can give me orders later.”

She sighed out relief into the layered scent of him so close, smiled indulgently when he pulled back far enough to slip off his suit jacket and blindly swing it around. “Then what the hell are we waiting for, Gunny?”

His hands brought the fabric along her shoulders in a movement so gentle that she leaned into his palms wiping it along her arms, turning her head into his lips finding her temple. “Treason, it seems.”


End file.
